Berrien Springs. Milwaukee. Pittsburgh. Grand Rapids. Back to Pittsburgh. Now back to Milwaukee

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Summer Round-Up

All in all, it was a nice and calm summer. Good thing, since our fall will be anything but that! The biggest development of all is that all THREE of the big girls completed the bike riding goal (around the hilly block, sans whining) and were rewarded with a trip to the mall for pierced ears! Mali went first and was really excited but pained by the experience. Brinn opted to wait until Carrigan was ready so I took the two of them the last day of school before summer. What a rite of passage.

We spent a lot of time outside enjoying both our front and back yards. Especially when our neighbors repaved their driveway. Laney, especially, could have watched that for hours.

Besides our two big trips, we squeezed in another Michigan visit. Coordinated with the fair, of course. The baby animal barn wasn't quite as impressive as last year, the the llamas were a hit!

We went regularly to our sweet little neighborhood library, especially during the Summer Reading Program. They had some great events, including this one from the Carnegie Science Center. The girls made their own silly putty and sidewalk chalk! All of the the girls participated in the reading incentive program and Mali even won the GRAND prize...a Kindle Fire! Not that we were especially ready for that one! But she did work dutifully at reading harder-level books and documenting them so she's pretty psyched.

Speaking of reading, this one's into it big time. LOTS of Magic Tree House books now. We also read
aloud some new winners like the Tale of Desperaux and Encyclopedia Brown.

Jonathan did a few home improvement projects, with his ever-willing helpers.

But mainly my days were spent at home, lounging with this sweet crew, playing games like Sorry and Sleeping Queens before we headed to the pool in the evenings. Not a bad gig I have!